The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine recalls that sanctions against the Russian delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) should be maintained until Moscow fully complies with the principles of the Council of Europe and the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

"Sanctions against the Russian Federation should remain in force until the Russian Federation completely corrects gross violations of the principles of the Council of Europe, restoring the territorial integrity of Ukraine," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa said on her Twitter on Monday.

PACE session is held in Strasbourg from October 8 to October 12.

As reported, the PACE in 2014 deprived the Russian delegation of the right to vote, and also introduced a number of other restrictions after the start of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. In 2017, Moscow suspended the payment of part of the contribution to the budget of the Council of Europe.

In the framework of the autumn session on October 9, the PACE plans to discuss amendments to the organization's regulations that complicate the procedure for depriving national delegations of the voting rights. The speaker will be deputy from Belgium Petra De Sutter.

We are talking about a draft resolution, the adoption of which will allow the full participation of the Russian delegation in PACE to be restored in January 2019. The amendments prepared for consideration by the Assembly do not impose a ban on depriving national delegations of their rights, including voting rights, but somewhat complicate the authorization procedure. For example, according to the proposed changes, it would be possible to challenge the credentials of the delegation not by a majority vote, as currently stipulated, but by two thirds.

On September 18, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada passed a statement saying that a possible lifting of restrictions from Russia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) bypassing relevant resolutions will mean that PACE admits to its political incompetence and will force the Ukrainian parliament to reconsider the principles and mechanisms of its cooperation with the assembly.

Speaking from the parliament's rostrum, the head of the Verkhovna Rada delegation to the PACE, Volodymyr Ariev, stressed that Russia had not fulfilled more than ten resolutions that had been adopted by the Assembly over the past four years.

"Russia resorted to the frank blackmail of the Council of Europe, ceasing its financing, which is 7%. Unfortunately, all attempts to agree that all other countries compensate for these losses did not bring any result since Russia has a very powerful friend in the face of PACE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland, who is trying with all his might to ensure that Russia is returned," he said.